Rise

What is rise.ai

Rise.ai is a commerce-focused customer retention platform that specializes in store credit, gift cards, rewards and loyalty mechanics for online merchants. It integrates with major e-commerce platforms (notably Shopify) to let merchants issue and manage digital gift cards, store credit, and rewards; run automated loyalty programs; and build promotional flows that increase repeat purchase rate and customer lifetime value. Rise.ai is frequently used by consumer brands, SaaS merchants selling subscriptions, and retailers who want centralized control over credits, refunds and gift fulfillment.

Rise.ai positions itself as a middleware layer between the storefront and the customer ledger: it stores balances, creates customer-facing redemption widgets, manages expiry and multi-currency balances, and automates campaigns such as birthday credits or post-purchase incentives. The product includes reporting and reconciliation tools that align issued credit with accounting and sales workflows. Because it focuses on credit/gift mechanics rather than being a full ERP or marketing automation tool, Rise.ai is often used alongside email, loyalty and CRM systems rather than replacing them.

Technical integrations are a major part of the platform: Rise.ai offers a set of front-end components (redeem widgets and gift card pages), back-office management for merchants, and API/webhook endpoints to synchronize balances with external systems. This makes it straightforward to connect Rise.ai into checkout flows, POS systems, and third-party loyalty or customer service platforms.

Rise.ai features

What does rise.ai do?

Rise.ai issues and manages digital gift cards and store credit, enabling merchants to give customers redeemable balances that behave like a branded currency. Core flows include gift card purchase, balance redemption at checkout, partial redemptions, balance top-ups, and balance transfers between customers. The tool also supports promotional credits (e.g., post-purchase incentives), refunds to store credit instead of cash refunds, and balance expiry rules.

Beyond credits, Rise.ai offers loyalty features such as points accumulation, tiered VIP programs, referral rewards, and rules-based automation for awarding credits. Merchants can configure triggers—like first purchase, repeat purchase, or reaching a spend threshold—to automatically issue store credit or coupons. Reporting shows how credits affect order velocity, average order value, and retention metrics.

Operational features include customer balance segmentation, manual adjustments, bulk issuance and import tools for migrating legacy gift card inventories, and reconciliation reports for accounting teams. The platform also provides merchant-facing templates for gift card pages, email redemption flows, and gift notifications to recipients.

Rise.ai pricing

Rise.ai offers these pricing plans:

• Free Plan: $0/month with limited features and trial-level limits for small stores or evaluation
• Starter: $29/month (monthly) or $290/year (annual) with basic gift card and store credit functions, simple automations and up to moderate transaction volumes
• Growth: $199/month (monthly) or $1,990/year (annual) including advanced promotions, loyalty automations, and higher monthly issuance volumes
• Professional: $399/month (monthly) or $3,990/year (annual) with advanced customization, priority support, and extended reporting
• Enterprise: Custom pricing for large merchants with SLAs, dedicated onboarding, advanced security and compliance needs

Check Rise.ai's current pricing tiers for the latest rates and enterprise options.

The platform commonly offers a free tier or free trial for evaluation, then scales pricing by number of orders or redemption volume on higher tiers. Enterprise contracts frequently include implementation services, custom integrations and revenue-share or transaction-based pricing depending on merchant needs.

How much is rise.ai per month

Rise.ai starts at $29/month for entry-level access to gift card and basic credit features on the Starter plan. Monthly prices increase with the Growth and Professional plans to support higher issuance volumes and more automation features.

Many merchants move from the Starter to Growth plan as their monthly gift card/redemption volumes grow or when they require loyalty automations and more intensive reporting. Enterprise-level customers receive custom monthly quotes depending on usage, integrations and support requirements.

How much is rise.ai per year

Rise.ai costs $290/year for the Starter plan when billed annually, which typically represents a discount compared with monthly billing. Growth and Professional plans also offer annual billing options (for example $1,990/year and $3,990/year respectively) that reduce monthly equivalent costs.

Annual billing is useful for brands that want predictable SaaS spend and often includes an upfront onboarding package or discounted setup fees for migrating gift card balances and configuring automations.

How much is rise.ai in general

Rise.ai pricing ranges from $0 to custom enterprise pricing starting around $29/month up to $399+/month or negotiated enterprise rates. The lower end (free or Starter) is used for testing core gift card and store-credit features; mid-tier plans unlock loyalty automations and larger issuance limits; top tiers provide customization, advanced analytics and dedicated support.

Total cost of ownership also depends on implementation work (theme customizations, checkout integration, API development) and any revenue-share or transaction fees negotiated for very high-volume merchants. Always confirm current plans and enterprise add-ons on Rise.ai’s pricing documentation.

What is rise.ai used for

Rise.ai is used to create and manage customer-facing store credit and digital gift card programs that integrate directly into an online checkout. Use cases include: enabling gift card purchases with custom branding; refunding customers to store credit instead of issuing cash refunds; issuing promotional credits to increase repeat purchases; and running loyalty programs that reward spending or referrals.

Merchants commonly use Rise.ai to recover revenue from canceled or returned orders by offering store credit with incentives to spend (for example, adding a bonus percentage to credits). This reduces friction in the refund workflow and tends to keep revenue in the same store rather than being lost to returns.

Other uses include corporate gifting, bulk issuance for promotions (e.g., influencer or partnership campaigns), and building VIP experiences where top customers receive earned credit or special redemption mechanics. Because Rise.ai supports segmented issuance and scheduled campaigns, marketing teams can align credit programs with product launches and seasonal promotions.

Pros and cons of rise.ai

Rise.ai has a focused feature set that solves a narrow but high-impact set of merchant problems. Pros include straightforward gift card and store credit issuance, deep Shopify integration, loyalty and referral components, and automated campaign triggers that make retention programs easier to operate without custom development. The reconciliation and reporting tools simplify accounting for issued credits versus redeemed sales.

Cons include the potential need for custom work to match highly bespoke checkout flows or multi-platform setups (for merchants using a separate POS or subscription engine), and the fact that advanced features and high volumes move shops into higher-priced plans. Some merchants may find they need additional tools (CRM, email marketing, subscription management) to build a complete retention stack, which means Rise.ai is one piece rather than a full-suite replacement.

Operationally, merchants must plan for how store credits affect revenue recognition and accounting; Rise.ai helps with reporting but accounting policy still needs to be defined. Finally, although Rise.ai supports many currencies and localization features, multi-country stores with complex tax/refund rules should validate flows during onboarding.

Rise.ai free trial

Rise.ai typically offers a trial period or a Free Plan to let merchants test core gift card and credit features without upfront cost. The free tier includes basic issuance and redemption flows, limited automations and a cap on monthly redemptions so merchants can validate integration and UX before upgrading.

The trial period is useful for verifying checkout UX, ensuring that gift card redemption and partial redemptions behave as expected, and testing reporting exports for accounting reconciliation. Onboarding and migration for existing gift card inventories are usually available as paid services or included in higher-tier plans.

To get the most from a trial, prepare test scenarios such as refunds-to-credit, partial redemptions, multi-currency orders, and integrations with your email/CRM so you can validate end-to-end flows before committing.

Is rise.ai free

Yes, Rise.ai offers a free tier that provides basic gift card and store credit functionality with usage limits for evaluation and very small merchants. The free tier is suitable for testing integrations and small-scale campaigns but has caps on issuance and limited automation compared to paid plans.

If you need higher transaction volumes, advanced loyalty automations, or prioritized support, upgrading to a paid plan is typically necessary.

Rise.ai API

Rise.ai exposes a RESTful API and webhooks designed to synchronize balances, create and manage gift cards and credits, and listen for redemption or issuance events. API capabilities commonly include creating balances, adjusting amounts, querying customer credit history, redeeming credits against orders, and mapping credit use to external order IDs for reconciliation.

Developers use the API to embed Rise.ai flows into custom checkout experiences, link credit balances to third-party subscription systems, or feed credit events into analytics and ERP systems. Webhooks let back-office systems react to redemptions in real time so inventory and accounting remain synchronized.

Documentation and developer resources are available on Rise.ai’s developer portal; merchants should check the platform’s API rate limits, authentication methods (typically API keys or OAuth), and sample SDKs for Shopify to accelerate integration. For complete technical details, consult the Rise.ai API documentation and developer guides.

10 Rise.ai alternatives

• Bold Commerce — commerce apps that include gift card and subscription capabilities; good for merchants needing bundles of commerce extensions
• Yotpo — loyalty and referrals combined with reviews and SMS/email tools for broader retention programs
• Smile.io — points-based loyalty and VIP programs focused on customer rewards and referrals
• Recharge — subscription billing with some capabilities to work with credits and discounts for recurring orders
• Growave — an integrated suite for loyalty, reviews and wishlists that includes store credit options
• LoyaltyLion — loyalty and retention platform focused on points and tiered rewards
• Voucherify — coupon, gift card and promotion engine with API-first approach for custom promo logic
• Gift Up! — gift card issuance platform that supports multiple platforms and custom gift pages
• Stamped.io — loyalty and reviews product with flexible rewards mechanics
• VoucherCart — corporate gift and voucher issuance system with enterprise-focused features

Paid alternatives to rise.ai

• Bold Commerce: Offers advanced commerce apps including gift card management and checkout-level integrations for Shopify and BigCommerce. Suitable for merchants who want multiple commerce extensions from one vendor.

• Yotpo: Provides loyalty, reviews and SMS/email, allowing merchants to centralize retention activities with marketing channels. Yotpo’s loyalty features complement its marketing automation.

• Smile.io: Popular points-based loyalty provider with a simple setup and strong merchant ecosystem. Smile.io focuses on gamified retention and is suitable for consumer brands.

• Recharge: If subscription billing is a primary revenue model, Recharge integrates deeply with checkout and can be combined with credit issuance for subscription incentives.

• Growave: An all-in-one retention suite that includes loyalty points, reviews and wishlist; a fit for merchants that want an integrated feature set rather than a single-purpose credit platform.

Open source alternatives to rise.ai

• Solidus (with custom plugins): Open source e-commerce framework where teams can build custom gift card and credit modules and control redemption logic at the platform level.

• Saleor (with extensions): Headless open-source commerce platform where developers can implement store credit mechanics and integrate third-party loyalty services.

• Sylius (custom development): Symfony-based e-commerce framework that allows building bespoke gift card and credit workflows tailored to complex business rules.

• Medusa (self-hosted): Headless commerce engine where credits/gift card services can be implemented in a modular way and connected to custom storefronts.

• Reaction Commerce (self-hosted): A flexible open commerce stack suitable for teams that want to implement custom promotional currency and loyalty logic.

Frequently asked questions about Rise.ai

What is Rise.ai used for?

Rise.ai is used for issuing and managing digital gift cards, store credit and loyalty rewards for e-commerce stores. Merchants use it to sell and redeem gift cards, refund to store credit, automate promotional credits, and operate loyalty or VIP programs that increase repeat purchases and lifetime value.

Does Rise.ai integrate with Shopify?

Yes, Rise.ai integrates with Shopify natively. The app hooks into Shopify checkout and order flows to apply credits at checkout, create gift card pages and synchronize redemption events for accurate reporting and reconciliation.

How much does Rise.ai cost per month?

Rise.ai starts at $29/month for the Starter plan. Higher-tier plans such as Growth and Professional are available at higher monthly rates depending on usage, automations and support levels.

Can Rise.ai handle refunds to store credit?

Yes, Rise.ai supports refunds to store credit. Merchants can issue credit instead of cash refunds, optionally adding bonus incentives, and track those balances separately for redemption and accounting.

Does Rise.ai support loyalty points and referral rewards?

Yes, Rise.ai includes loyalty and referral features. The platform can award points or credits based on rules like purchases, referrals or VIP status, and can automate issuance as part of a rewards program.

Is there a free version of Rise.ai?

Yes, Rise.ai offers a free tier. The free tier allows merchants to test core gift card and credit issuance features with limits on monthly redemptions and automation capabilities.

Can I use Rise.ai with multi-currency stores?

Yes, Rise.ai supports multiple currencies. The platform can manage balances and redemption behavior across currencies, though merchants should validate taxation and accounting treatment for cross-border redemptions.

Does Rise.ai provide an API for custom integrations?

Yes, Rise.ai provides a REST API and webhooks. These endpoints allow developers to create, modify and reconcile balances, listen for redemption events, and build custom checkout or subscription flows that interact with credits.

How secure is Rise.ai?

Rise.ai follows standard commerce security practices. The platform uses secure authentication for API access, offers encrypted storage for sensitive data, and provides enterprise-grade controls on higher-tier plans; consult Rise.ai’s security documentation for specifics like certifications and compliance.

Can Rise.ai integrate with email and CRM tools?

Yes, Rise.ai integrates with email platforms and CRMs via native connectors and webhooks. These integrations let marketing teams trigger emails for issued credits, send gift notifications, and sync customer-level credit events into CRM records for segmentation and automation.

Rise.ai careers

Rise.ai hires across product, engineering, merchant success, sales and marketing functions as a commerce-technology company. Roles often focus on Shopify app development, API engineering, customer onboarding specialists who understand e-commerce operations, and solutions engineers who design integrations for high-volume merchants. Interested candidates should review the company’s careers page for open roles and details on remote vs. office locations.

Rise.ai affiliate

Rise.ai may run partner and affiliate programs targeted at agencies, platform partners and technology integrators who refer merchants or build integrations. These programs typically provide revenue share or referral fees and are available through Rise.ai’s partner portal. Agencies that implement Rise.ai for merchants often receive co-marketing resources and onboarding support to streamline deployments.

Where to find Rise.ai reviews

You can find user reviews and ratings on ecommerce app marketplaces and review platforms such as the Shopify App Store, G2, Capterra and TrustRadius. Merchant case studies and testimonials on Rise.ai’s site are useful for understanding real use cases, while independent review platforms provide comparative ratings and feature-level feedback. For the most up-to-date merchant feedback, check the Rise.ai listing on the Shopify App Store and third-party review sites.